The analysis of 6-8. grades students' algebraic word problem solving strategies and errors

The main purpose of this research is to determine the middle school 6th, 7th and 8th grade students' algebraic word problem solving strategies and the errors they may have made in the process in accordance with the acquisitions from 2005 elementary mathematics curriculum and to reveal the teachers' views about this process. This study was designed according to the qualitative research methodology in order to determine the 6th, 7th and 8th grade students' problem solving strategies, mistakes and the teachers views about this process.. The study group of the research consists of 1017 students from 6th, 7th and 8th grades attending the schools in the centre districts of Adana (Çukurova, Sarıçam, Seyhan and Yüreğir) and 12 maths teachers working in these schools in the education year of 2012-2013. First of all, the Identification Test of the Students' Algebraic Problem Solving Strategies and Errors (CSHT) was applied to all the students. In the second phase of the data collection the teachers of these students were interviewed to gain detailed and in-depth information about which strategies the students had applied while solving the problems in this test and what kind of errors they had made in the process. As a result of the data analysis, it was found that the students mostly used systemic distribution, reverse operation, adjustment after division, trial and error, making and solving equation strategies and made logical erros as the types of error while solving the algebraic word problems. Keys words: Problem solving strategy, algebraic word problem, type of error